Chapter 21: I'm Gonna Give All My Secrets Away

The month of May sped by faster than the rest of the months had. Lily watched how the world seemed to move around her so quickly and fluidly. Things were working out as they should; Harry and Ginny were finally together after so many months of the both of them being too hard headed to realize the other one was ready for a relationship. Alyce was boy free for the first time in many years. This wasn't exactly a good thing, but she was able to focus on what she wanted from life and seemed to be handling things in her own way. Ron, he was the only one who seemed not to be moving forward with the rest of the crowd. She had expected him to sulk for a while after he and Lavender had broken up, but this was becoming a bit ridiculous. Then of course her, she was changing with every passing day, as her body grew to accommodate its second passenger. The baby was due in just a few short months and she realized that not even her family had known she was pregnant. She hadn't gotten up the nerve to send an owl out to tell her brother. It wasn't as if she could hide it when she went home in less than two weeks. She wasn't sure if there was room in that house for one more person. She knew there was definitely enough "room" when you considered space issues, but she was more worried about the need for attention from both her ailing grandmother and the newborn. She guessed that she really didn't have any other options outside of that.

Alyce noted that Draco was returning her gazes when she found herself staring at him in Potions. She would always turn away first, but when she would quickly glance out of her peripheral vision she could see that he was still staring at her, though much more sneakily after she had turned away. She had, on two separate occasions, almost approached him, but something did not feel right about that, so she stuck to her gut instincts.

Harry had begun to get used to his new normal, which consisted of seeing Ginny when she wasn't busy with her classes or studying for her OWLs and with his usual Saturday detentions with Snape. He was irritated on that particular Saturday because he had wanted to spend time with Ginny, and the weekends were the only time she could really spare a good amount of time to spend with him. He filed until 2 PM when Snape finally released him. On his way back to the common room he received an urgent message from Dumbledore. He had all but forgotten about the Horcruxes in his new found happiness with Ginny, but he knew now that things were finally going to get accomplished on the finishing off Voldemort front. He hurried up to Dumbledore's office, but ran into Professor Trealawney on the way who seemed to be disoriented. Harry chuckled to himself, "When is she not disoriented?" he thought to himself.

Trealawney shared with him that she could not get into the Room of Requirement and someone in there had sounded very happy. Harry knew that nothing good could come from that. That must mean whatever Draco had been working on had finally come through, which he knew could never be a good thing at all. Trelawney had also shared with him a bit of information he had not known before and that information in particular made his blood boil. He couldn't think after she told him that Snape had been the one to tip off Voldemort about the prophecy that got his parents killed. He was only seeing red as he rushed to Dumbledore's office. He had to know why Dumbledore placed trust in a man who put Harry in this situation to begin with. If Snape hadn't overheard that prophecy he could be living with his parents instead of the horrible Dursley's, he wouldn't have to worry about killing off Voldemort before Voldemort killed him, he could have had a halfway normal time at Hogwarts, well as normal as it could be for Hogwarts, and the Wizarding world wouldn't consider him the Chosen One. By the time he made it to Dumbledore's office he had all but forgotten about the Horcrux that Dumbledore had called on him in the first place for. He exploded at Dumbledore who calmly told him nothing about the matter, just that he trusted Snape for reasons of his own. Harry knew he was hiding something vital, but once the Hocruxes were mentioned he changed his focus to that.

Dumbledore said to meet him at the front entrance in five minutes. His heart was racing as he rushed back to the boy's dormitory to get his invisibility cloak. That was not the only thing he had to get in order before he left. He had to be sure that Ron, Alyce, and Lily were adequately warned about Draco's recent overjoy. Draco being overjoyed was never a good sign. As he got to the boy's dormitory, he dug through his trunk and found his old cloak and also found the luck potion he had gotten so many months ago. There was still some left and he knew what it needed to be used on. He would give it to Ron, Alyce, and Lily and let them pass it on to Ginny as well. It might just be the luck they needed if all hell did break loose before he got back they would at least be protected.

He found Ron and Lily first who were both sitting on the couch, one working diligently on their studies and the other who appeared to be napping. He quickly explained the situation to them and the two sat stone faced. He didn't give Lily or Ron any time to argue or question as he handed the Felix Felicis and Marauder's Map to Lily and Ron. "Let Alyce and Ginny know what's going on and round up the DA, Dumbledore isn't going to be here tonight and I know Snape is involved in this somehow so you are going to need all the help you can get," Harry said quickly before leaving. He didn't look back to see if Lily or Ron had responded.

As Harry hastily left the room Ron and Lily looked at one another confused. "What are we going to do?" Ron asked.

Lily sighed. As much as she thought Harry was paranoid sometimes, especially when it came to Draco, she was guessing that he was probably not wrong to be worried this time. She knew something was wrong, but she didn't know how Snape was involved. She hadn't spoken to him since, well since the baby had been conceived, and even then she was in disguise. She knew very little about the man who impregnated her.

Alyce came down a few minutes later and Lily quickly explained what Harry had explained to her. Instead of sitting stone faced as she and Ron had when Harry told them, she looked quite angry.

"I knew it," Alyce said quietly. "I didn't want to believe it, but I knew it."

"Knew what?" Ron asked. Lily patted Alyce on the shoulder knowing exactly what she was talking about.

"Draco is a death eater," Alyce said the words catching in her throat.

"Are you sure?" Ron asked again now his face covered in shock.

"No, but I have a strong feeling that that is the case," Alyce said. "That means that we do need to be on high alert, because he could have something very dangerous planned. Lily, do you still have the coin for calling the DA?"

"I've already alerted them," Lily said. "By any chance was Ginny up in the girl's dormitory with you?" Lily asked.

"No, I think she went to the library," Alyce said.

"Harry wanted you, me, Ron, and Ginny to drink this," Lily said holding up the Felix Felicis.

"And, we are supposed to keep an eye on Malfoy and Snape using this," Ron added holding up the Marauder's Map.

"I'm going to find Ginny, and I've asked the DA to meet us by the Room of Requirement. I don't know if Malfoy is still in there, but we can at least have a centralized place to meet before finding another place to go if the room is still occupied," Lily said.

Lily rushed out of the room and Ron and Alyce walked to the room of requirement. When they turned the corner, they were shocked to see that most of the group members were already there in high alert.

"Thanks for coming," Ron said. "We are just waiting for Lily and Ginny and we'll be ready."

Lily rushed into the library where she already saw Ginny getting to her feet. "Ginny must have gotten the notice from the coin," she thought to herself.

"Lily, what's going on?" Ginny asked as they walked to the room of requirement.

As they turned the corner Lily and Ginny saw the group there waiting for them. Lily once again explained the story and the group began discussing what they were going to do. "I don't know what is going to happen, but we need to be on high alert."

"Do you think in your current condition that you should be fighting if it comes to that?" Ginny asked Lily.

"I can keep an eye on the map, but if necessary, I will fight. Other women have fought with the same condition, I will just have to be much more cautious," Lily said. "I can also send instructions via the coins to help you understand what's going on, because the plan is that we are going to spread out and cover all parts of the castle to be sure that we meet any attack head on."

The group nodded and Lily, Ron, and Alyce gave them their post assignments. The group separated and that left Lily, Ron, Alyce, and Ginny by the room of requirement.

"I wanted you all to stay behind because Harry gave us this," Lily said holding the Felix Felicis. "He only had enough for the four of us."

The small group nodded and each passed the small tube around to take a swig. Alyce, Ron, and Lily stayed by the room of requirement and Ginny went to her separate post.

Lily, Ron, and Alyce watched the map carefully. They were hidden around a corner so that when Malfoy appeared from the Room of Requirement they would see him, but he would not see them. They waited for what felt like hours, but in reality was only at most twenty minutes. They were not expecting what appeared from the Room of Requirement.

The first body out of the room was exactly who they expected, Draco Malfoy. What followed behind made them all gasp quietly. Lily quietly slipped farther around the corner sending out a red alert to the DA as she prayed no other students were in the hallways. She knew she would have to alert the Order of the Phoenix next, but she waited until she knew it was safe. She watched as Alyce and Ron attacked first trying to catch them off guard and Lily sent out the distress signal then using her Patronus.

She knew she had given away her position and she bolted away from Alyce and Ron hoping to at least draw a couple of the death eaters away from them. She finally was stopped by a hideous looking man and harsh looking woman. She reached her hand behind her ready to draw her wand when the woman stopped the man who was about to perform a curse and said, "No, stop Amycus, look," the woman said pointing to Lily's stomach. Lily had a look of shock covering her face. Had a death eater really spared her because she was pregnant?

"Ah," Amycus said grinning. "I didn't believe Snape, but it appears this is the girl. Pretty too, do you think he'd mind," Amycus said approaching Lily. She gripped her wand ready to hex him.

"No," the woman said stopping him. "If you want a student you'll have plenty to choose from after we overturn the castle, leave this one."

Lily saw her moment and hexed the two of them and continued running. She had to be sure that no innocent students would be in the hall, now more than ever. She had tears running down her face. Snape knew, and if he knew that she was pregnant, how much else did he know? Why hadn't he said anything to her, let her suffer through this alone, yet bragged to all of these death eaters that he had fucked her? Had he done something to her? Tricked her into fucking him perhaps? Had he had the whole thing planned from the beginning? Made her feel like she was in love with him? Well, she knew now that she didn't love him, as she wiped her eyes, she HATED him. Hated that she had slept with him, hated that she had ever felt like she loved him, hated that she was going to leaving Hogwarts to raise his child. She rubbed her stomach feeling her baby kicking frantically. She didn't hate this baby, she could never hate this baby, but she could never love the man who did this to her.

Alyce and Ron battled the Death Eaters hard. Ron and Alyce split up and the Death Eaters spread out. They both knew there was no way that they could fight them off all by themselves and after seeing Lily's Patronus, they knew that she had alerted the Order. They would be soon getting the backup they needed, but they couldn't fight these death eaters with just the two of them. They noted that Lily was already alerting the rest of the DA and having them meet in a centralized location. "Power in numbers," Alyce thought to herself as she continued running.

Alyce ran as far as she thought she could before noticing who was behind her.

"Malfoy," she said with pure spite and hate in her voice.

"Get out of my way Alyce," he said his voice and eyes both cold as ice.

"No, I want to know why you did this. Why in the hell do you think it's ok to get everyone here killed? Are you really that evil that you want every student here to die? You fucking bastard, answer me!" she shouted at him as he ran in the other direction.

Malfoy ran away from his ex-girlfriend. He couldn't be seen associating with her or her fate might be the same as her friend Lily's. He had to find Dumbledore and he had to kill the man before this got any more out of hand.

One death eater cast the dark mark and after that pure chaos ensued. Lily tried to round up as many of the students in the halls as she could and herded them into the room of requirements not knowing where else to put them. "Don't move," she told the younger students. "You stay here until someone comes to get you, you will be safe here, but only if you stay here together."

Lily finally felt that she had cleared the halls adequately when she saw a figure approaching her. She shot a spell at this person, which was blocked easily. As the figure approached she noted that it was Snape, the one person she had wanted to hex the most.

"You slimy git," she said under her breath.

Snape stared at the girl intrigued. He should be the one angry at her not the other way around. "Put down your wand," he said to her sternly.

She shot another hex at him as he approached her. "Stay away from me, don't touch me!" she yelled casting another spell which he easily blocked again.

"You need to close your mind my dear or you will never be able to overpower me," Snape said.

"Get out of my head," Lily shouted at him holding her head in her hands.

Snape heard yells in the distance and left Lily there. Lily ran to see what was happening and saw that Bill was attacked by what she assumed to be a werewolf. Terror filled her as she saw the werewolf coming back in for the killing blow, when Tonks sent a curse flying toward the werewolf, knocking him away. They heard movement in the astronomy tower and a few began to make their way up there to see what had happened.

The castle was silent for a few moments as Lily found her way back to Ron and Alyce. "I've put all of the students who I found in the halls into the room of requirement," Lily said. "They should be safe."

"What about us," Ron said wiping blood from his lip. "What's going to happen, there is no way we can fight them all off, where are Dumbledore and Harry?" he asked.

"Ron, pull yourself together!" Alyce shouted at him. "We have been through much worse without the help of the Order. It's going to be ok."

Ron nodded and Lily was impressed with her ability to keep calm and to help Ron work through some of his fears. She knew the group of them would be ok without her.

They heard a deafening crack and saw a body drop from the astronomy tower. There was a battle as the death eaters fled from the castle. Lily caught only a glimpse of Snape once more fleeing the castle with the rest of the death eaters as she herself was battling the woman who had spared her baby earlier. Soon all of the death eaters had followed and were retreating and Hogwarts was quiet.

Harry followed Snape unable to think straight. He had just seen the man that Dumbledore had trusted so much, the man who had put him in this predicament by getting his parents killed, kill Dumbledore.

Harry tried as hard as he could to cast the Cruciatus curse several times, but he was blocked every time by Snape.

"No Unforgiveable Curses from you Potter!" Snape shouted almost taunting him as he continued to flee.

Harry tried again but Snape blocked him again. "Fight back!" Harry screamed at the top of his lungs. "Fight back you cowardly-," he began to shout.

"Coward, did you call me, Potter?" Snape shouted back. "Your father would never attack me unless it was four on one, what would you call him, I wonder?"

Harry tried again to curse the man, but felt excruciating pain and dropped to the ground. "NO!" Snape shouted at another death eater. "The boy is left to the Dark Lord!"

Harry felt the curse lift and heard footsteps rushing away. He tried a couple of the Prince's curses before finally Snape retaliated. Harry felt himself jetted backward tumbling head over heels a few times in the grass.

"You dare use my own spells against me!" Snape shouted at him. "It was I who invented them- I, the Half Blood Prince! And you'd turn my inventions on me like your filthy father, would you? I don't think so…no!"

"Kill me then!" Harry shouted knowing that he had no wand, and not feeling anything but hate and contempt. "Kill me like you killed him, you coward!"

"DON'T-" screamed Snape as he turned around, his face twisted and manic. "DON'T YOU DARE CALL ME A COWARD!" he shouted.

Harry felt white hot pain, so bad that he nearly blacked out. "You are no man," Harry said in a low voice to him.

Snape's face suddenly contorted into a twisted smile. "I'm man enough to have your friend screaming my name under me while I put that baby inside of her."

Harry laid in shock as he heard the man chuckle and rush toward the gates dissapirating beyond them.

After he was sure Hagrid and Fang made it out of the burning hut ok and the hut was completely put out, Harry rushed back over to the castle to find a huddle around Dumbledore's body.

He saw the man, his mentor, lying broken on the grass. His limbs were twisted in many directions. He stood there for many moments next to the body before he felt a warm hand on his shoulder and heard a familiar voice, "Harry, you need to come to the hospital wing, you're bleeding."

"You!" Harry turned around shouting in Lily's face. He was completely unable to control his rage at this point. "Don't you dare touch me, you tart. You shagged a murderer! Snape killed him!" Harry said frantically pointing at Dumbledore.

Lily blushed brightly, but was mostly in shock. She heard the whispers around her. "I'm sorry," Lily said quietly. " I didn't.. I never meant…" She began saying, but couldn't find her words and eventually just broke through the crowd with her head down and ran toward the castle.

Harry suddenly felt the eyes on him after the outburst he had just made. Ginny grabbed him by the hand and lead him to the hospital wing where he stayed with the others who were injured during the battle.

"Have you seen Lily," Alyce asked holding a cold compress to her now blackened eye.

"I…" Harry said.

"He yelled at her, something about her shagging Snape," Ginny said quietly.

"Oh," Alyce said quietly.

"It's not true is it?" Ginny asked quieter.

"I think that's something Lily would have rather have told her you herself," Alyce said.

Ron's face was covered in shock as well. "No," he said. "There's no way she would betray us like that," he said.

"She wasn't betraying anyone," Alyce said. "It was an unfortunate mistake, and she's terrified of him. Please give her a break, she didn't mean for any of it to happen," Alyce said trying to stick up for her friend. "You guys gave me a hard time when I was dating Draco and it drove me away. She needs your support just as much as I did, if not more. She's going to have his baby, a baby that wasn't ever supposed to happen. She's got a hard road ahead of her and the last you two gits could do is be the friends that's she always been to you when you two most certainly did not deserve her friendship."

The two sat quietly and stared at Alyce. "What? I've been known to be reasonable every now and again."